High Envoy Tr’sheth looked up as Angrera-of-Brgrath, her Dorarizin counterpart, and Hessthhshh, her Jornissian counterpart, both entered the secure meeting room from opposite doors.

The sleek, black furred Dorarizin stretched, mouth opening it what would be a yawn were it on a human, as she rippled her teeth loudly. “[I hear First Contact went well,]” she chuckled, gaining her a dirty look from Tr’sheth. She took a seat, tucking her large, furred frame under and around the small, circular table. Her dark-golden yellow eyes shone with mirth.

“|It’s not too late to get a replacement for you, you know.|” Tr’sheth’s red-and-green feathers fluffed up in annoyance.

“[It really is,]” Hessthhshh interjected, eschewing a chair in favour of coiling herself up to the appropriate height. The Jornissian was a thicker, colder-climate variant, with a petite hood that many males would call (and had called) ‘cute’. She was a muted beige colour, but her scales shone with a pearlescent gleam. Bright, unblinking blue eyes focused on the two other members of her inter-species group. “[we were never really expected to have a job to do, and now that we do, nobody else wants to do it and anybody who did is not being allowed in-system.]”

“[Quite. So, how have you been taking it so far?]” Angrera continued, in a sing-song voice.

“|Well I’m moulting, I can’t sleep, it’s already taken years off my life and we’re only a few day-cycles in. There are just so many of them and everything’s on fire!|”

Silence reigned in the meeting room for a minute or so as the three envoys took in the flood of information from the planet — apparently called ‘Dirt’ by the natives — below.

“[It’s a real nest of cracked eggs, that’s for sure,]” Hessthhshh finally commented. “[They can’t be left to burn, obviously. I fully agree with rescuing them from this… from all this.]”

“[So where are we going to put them all? The fourth planet is… we could make something of it.]” Angrera brought up a hard-light hologram of the fourth planet in the system, idly spinning it in her hands. “[The natives call it [Big Fight] or something?]”

The Jornissian shivered right the way down her body. “[Far too cold for my liking. And for theirs, and that’s before you get to the lack of atmosphere.]”

“|Well, the second planet is far too hot. We could terraform them both — and most likely will — but that will take time. We’re going to have to reverse all the damage done to their ecosphere on Dirt too, but that’s also going to take time. I just can’t… and they’re so little! And they… they need so much protecting! You know that’s what we’re calling them? I don’t know who snagged the designation, but… if I can… are we safe here?|”

Angrera snorted. “[For some reason, the three screwups with a joke of a job have one of the highest security designations in the sector.]” She waved a paw idly, raising the secrecy levels as high as it went.

“|We’re… have you met them yet? In person?|”

“[I have. I could hardly keep my paws off them. You know they smell like newborn pups?]”

Hessthshh nodded. “[I’ve met them too. They’re so warm!]”

“|We’re… are your translators, ah…?|”

“[Unlocked, of course.]” Angrera grinned.

“[When are they not?]” Hessthshh flicked her tail-tip in mirth.

“|Then let me tell you what we call them. Direct translation… little-needs-protecting.|” Tr’sheth’s feathers fluffed up in a Karnakian blush.

“[Warm-cuddles,]” Hessthshh said, meeting her compatriots’ gazes, though she had to fight not to hide behind her coils.

“[Tiny-chompers,]” Angrera said, her tail wagging unconsciously.

“|And they must never find out how cute they are! I just… I just don’t know what we’re going to do with them all!|”

“[Surely we have the facilities, and the mandate, to get them anything they need?]” the Jornissian asked. “[Our facilities are second to none, and the Gal-Credits to make it happen. We’re going to dedicate a few mass processor systems to it, so—]”

“[That’s not going to be the problem, Hess, it’s the urgency.” Angrera interupted. “It hurts to see them in pain like this, to see them without homes, their packs scattered, to know that these little creatures are so smart that they nearly made it into space, but now their homeworld is in flames and by their own hands. Mostly. Sort of... Peace, Tr’sheth! I know about The Incident. I also know it was their own missiles that set their world on fire, and could have done so even without it happening. The blame is not yours, though Karnakia will hold itself responsible for them for the foreseeable future.]” Angrera got up, and pulled the Karnakian awkwardly to her chest. “[There’s lots of if only’s, but your job, our job, is not to dwell on them, but to find solutions for the here and now.]”

“[I just wish I could take them in, keep them safe, until we can be sure they have a place to go to, and that they won’t do anything like this again.]” Hessthshh put her head in her hands, her hood almost flat against her body. Angrera and Tr’sheth looked at each other.

“|Say that again!|”

“[What? That I don’t want them to do anything like that again?]”

“|No, further back.|”

“[Keep them safe until they’ve got a place to go?]”

“[No, no,] Angrera said, “[take them in.]” Her eyes glittered.

Silence once again reigned as the trio looked at each other.

“|Could we?|”

“[We… it would mean instant availability of facilities, and they… and they would learn how to live in our society…]” Hessthshh stated slowly, nodding, her hood inflating once more. “[We’ve had lots of discussions about transitioning their society to post-scarcity, it would… it would solve a lot of problems if we just… did it.]”

“|And we could… it would be easy to set up a screening program, right now even! Those with small chicks wouldn’t be allowed unsupervised access, after all we know how fragile they are, but we could… f-for their own good…|”

“[Of course,]” purred Angrera, “[it’s all for their own good that we… give them homes. And little beds. And feed and clothe them.]”

“[And cuddle them and love them.]”

The trio looked at each other with barely contained excitement.

“|Un-until they have somewhere, uh, more permanent. Which could take years. Which is all the more terrible if we instead held them indefinitely in refugee camps. No, no, we need to house at least six to eight billion of them, and with all the facilities in the galaxy we can’t build that many places to live in one go… so f-for the ones that d-don’t want to live with us, th-then we can—|”

“[We can give them a place to live! Of course, we’ll need a breeding stock, uh, a genetically viable population, so we can set up colonies for those that it’s not feasible to have as pe… er, as guests…]” The Dorarizin’s tail was wagging fast, now, almost a blur.

“|And we can adopt the re—I mean, house the rest!|”

“[And then I can have a warm-cuddles all my own!]”

“[You mean you can generously give of your own pack to a sapient in need, of course.]”

“[Of course. Very noble of me. Us.]”

“|So we… give them a choice, right? Adopt—er, placement, between one of our peoples. The little-needs-protectings make their own decisions, that’s only fair.|”

“[And we just don’t tell them that there’s a fourth choice. Because we don’t want to confuse them.]”

“[No, it would just… distress them.]” Angrera grinned, flicking an ear with mirth. Then she grew pensive for a moment. “[As much as they may prefer to be with their own kind, we can’t handle that with this number of refugees. We have to hide the truth from as many of them as possible or we’ll lose even more of them.]”

“|Agreed. Now we only need a way to know how to keep track of—|”

“|Livestock tags? Ah, they’re admittedly the same locators as we put on errant chicks who like to wander off. And I believe all of our surface forces have them… they’re quick to make, and we have a massive supply of them in situ…|”

Angrera grinned again, rippling her teeth with mirth. “[Just never let them know that’s what they are. Go on, I think we have something here.]”

“[And… and we should have a… a mobile translator, able to hold basic identification and other terminal accesses they made need to keep them properly safe. They should always wear it… we could put it into a…]” Hessthshh drew into herself, almost hiding behind her own coils, “[a collar.]”

“|That would be super adorable, uh, I mean, cogent and copacetic.|” Tr’sheth’s crest slowly rose with excitement as she peered around the table. The Jornissian gestured for her to continue. “|So this is the plan; We tag them all once processed so we know whose little-needs-protecting is whose, issuing a collar for each one. Nobody with small chicks or a criminal record is allowed to have a little-needs-protecting; everybody has to pass basic screening for security and stability, with a lottery to keep things fair for those who are on any waiting lists, mandatory mass trainings for safety to avoid another incident... We keep the families together and we build colonies for those that either don’t want to be or can’t be homed with any of our people.|”

“[The Jornissian Federation will supply the fabber technology and raw materials, and I assume the Dorarizin Empire will offer transport and supplies?]” Hessthshh spoke up, meeting her compatriots’ gazes one after another.

Angrera nodded. “[More than that, we can supply basic support logistics. For example, medical tents can easily be set up en masse for basic screening, yada yada yada, we have a lot of field-medics on paw so that’s no problem, with medical frigates for the larger issues. We are indeed already bringing in some of our larger mobile arcologies, having foreseen this need for habitation, so we’ve got plenty of space for temporary lodgings… though I’m sure Zephyr Nexus will be mostly Karnakian for now, yes?]”

Tr’Sheth nodded, raising her crest again with pride. “|We will have the Holy Karnakian Navy providing security support and the Army handling things down on the planet — no doubt everybody will want to help there in time — so they’re safe from external threats, if not internal.|” Tr’Sheth picked at her claws in thought.

“[So my friends, it sounds like we have the beginnings of a plan, agreed?]” Angrera leaned back, arms crossed with a large grin on her muzzle.

“[Agreed.]” Hessthshh nodded vehemently, her tail-tip twirling with excitement.

“|Agreed.|”

“[Motion so tabled. Let us confirm. Do the ayes have it? It’s an ‘aye’ from me.]”

“[Aye.]”

“|Aye. The ayes do have it. I guess that means we need to call for refreshments. A lot of refreshments, because we’re not getting out of here until we produce a basic set of guidance documents.|”

Angrera and Hessthshh each did their own species’ equivalent of sighing heavily.

“[Best to get on with it. Just load me up with some Drzulr and I’ll be good,]” the Dorarizin said, as they brought up holographic displays and got to work.

Chr'ter could hardly contain herself. Yes, it was awful what had happened to Dirt — and would forever be a stain on the conscience of every Karnakian, until the Last Mother — but… but… she was going to have her very own little-needs-protecting! The word had come down from Command that the creatures really could be taken home! It broke her heart how down there — she looked at the viewscreens on her rescue craft as she rocketed away from the burning world — there were so many more little-needs-protectings, but at least she could give one, maybe even two, a new home.

“|Come in Zephyr Nexus, this is alpha-two-bravo-niner-niner Gleaming Winds of Sahlraan requesting docking permission, Chr'ter at the con. Security be informed, I have two hundred and ninety six little-needs-protectings onboard, twenty seven of them are suspected to be pregnant, all of them require medical aid.|” Chr'ter and her craft, the Gleaming, was headed towards the hastily repurposed main expedition vessel, renamed ‘Zephyr Nexus’, with all her sister ships from every member of the Senate at large similarly re-named with but with numerical designations. Ordinarily, such places would be purpose-built from in-system matter, but with things as it were, that was out of the question.

“|Zephyr Nexus here, EM Squire Chrk’chrk at your service. Medical Aid? Tell me something I don’t know. I have you in docking bay one-five-five-epsilon-delta-six-six, security will be on scene to avoid a crush. Kinematics solutions en route. You’ve got your little-needs-protecting all picked out?|”

“|I do! I found just the cutest thing! She helped me — I-I-I think it’s a she — get her flock moving into the Gleaming. I might… I think she has a mate and they’re both on board, would it be okay if—|”

“|Keep your feathers on, you know we don’t split up nests. Leave some of the cute ones for us up here though, won’t you?|”

“|You want first dibs, get down to the planet, rescue a few.|”

“|Yeah, yeah. I filed my request for emergency flight permission hours ago… on the other claw I get off shift shortly, then I’ll get to try my luck. Happy flying, Gleaming.|”

“|Keep your tail clean, Chrk’chrk. Gleaming out.|”

Chr'ter dismissed the comms channel with a gesture, filling her senses once more with the tumult of systems data from the main core of her ship. Her haptics fed a constant stream of information from inside and outside; as she mentally turned back to the job of flying, it was almost as if she was the ship, gliding through the cosmos. Not as deep a dive as a full immersion rig, but still enough to scratch that itch. With a mental nudge, she slaved her systems to the renamed Zephyr’s and eased into the appointed course. She could’ve flown in with barely a thought, but with over two hundred of the most rare creatures in the entire universe on board, nothing was being left to chance. Her job was to double-check the main core of Zephyr, though it was all but impossible for it to make an actual mistake.

Gravimetric distortion pulled at her field manipulators as some truly gargantuan ship flowed past, giving her the once-over. This was the pride of the Karnakian Navy, Claws of Unkempt Fury, hyper-dimensional point manipulator cannons, cascade field missiles and all. Obviously to keep the pirates out, but it still made her weak in the membranes. One small advance force of bored explorers managed to set fire to a world. Just the Claws could crack it like an egg. There were Eight such behemoths in-system and all of them exuded an air of malevolence that set her crest vibrating.

She shivered, and then was out of range of the gigantic effectors. A few scant minutes later the Gleaming entered Zephyr proper

Try to imagine this scene: thousands, if not tens of thousands, of humans all wandering around in various states of deshabillement, some of them in bathrobes and fluffy slippers, whilst hordes of alien space raptors flock around and through them in states of barely contained glee. It was utter chaos.

There was a method to the madness, however. Slowly I realized we were being formed into a long queue, and along the queue of humans was being formed several queues of alien space raptors. We humans were being shuffled into a number of tent-like structures, and along the way were being given… snacks? And drinks? And pats. It was hard not to comment on the pats, since that’s what we had the most of.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“[Next come!]”

I was finally at one of the tents. “Hi, uhh, hello. Let me just…” I dropped the armfulls of crisps, biscuits, chocolate bars and soda that I’d been handed — either the aliens had what amounted to replicator technology, or they had a serious shopping spree going on amidst the devastation, and at this point I was ready to believe either one — into the waiting bins, where they were prompted grabbed by more alien space raptors, presumably to hand out to more of the waiting humans. “Rrriiigghhhttt, yes, okay, umm… what do you want?”

“[Look light… be good! Many finger?]”

I awkwardly looked into a stick which had what looked like some sort of LED at the top of it as the space raptor swept it back and forth. Then it held up first two ‘fingers’, then three, then one, then none. I copied it with my hand. The alien then leaned forward, as if it were peering into my brain, or seeing something I couldn’t. The second pair of eyes winked carefully, one after the other.

“[Is good. Head-lights good. Oh! What that?]” The space raptor pointed off to one side. I turned to look, and that’s when I was betrayed.

“Ow!” I was jabbed in the arm with something that kind of looked like a cross between a wrench and a coconut.

“[Good boy. Have sweet. Have head soft. Have warm cover. Next come!]”

I took my lollipop with bad grace even as I was ushered out of one madhouse into another, rubbing where I’d received some sort of shot. Hopefully it was a basic inoculation and not some sort of brain-eating sequestration nanite concoction.

Bundling what appeared to be a cuddly toy large enough to be a pillow — obvious, really, what ‘head soft’ meant in hindsight — under one arm and an outsized duvet cover under the other, I wandered into the other side of the melee. I ducked under one raptor carrying three grown humans and stumbled past another cuddling yet another — it was whispering something in alien and combing said human’s hair. He wasn’t very happy about the bows, but wasn’t in much of a position to disagree with having them — and almost butt-checked a third.

As I did, I heard a “Peep peep peep!” coming from under its wing-like arms. A human child poked their head out.

“Peep peep!”

Then another, and another, and another. In the end, there were five children ensconced within the space-raptor’s body. All of them peeping quite loudly, if you squinted hard enough it was almost like they were talking alien. They were doing their best to mimic some sort of noise obviously taught to them by the space-raptor, because a second space raptor — was the first or the second mommy or daddy? Or were they both mommy, or…? I shook myself — called to them too.

The bundle of children disentangled themselves from the first alien’s body and then skittered to the second, who gathered them up and made them face the first.

“|Chirrup snarf grrr!|”

“Peep peep!”

They sat down, giggling and talking in English, as the second quietened them down. Then the first called again.

“|Growf cheep!|”

They all stood up, and the second hugged them closely, then gestured to follow the first, and they all marched off together, for all the world looking like a family… which I guessed they were, kind of.

I had no idea where they were going, but they seemed happy enough to get there. It was only after they’d gone that I realized that every human I’d seen that was ‘with’ a space raptor had a collar on. It was far too… ubiquitous to be a kink or fashion fetish. Huh. For myself, I just wandered around without much of an aim. There were plenty of space raptors ready to pat my head and load me down with too many snacks — I’d seen where they were coming from, now, and if there’d been anybody left to care they’d have one heck of a problem with the mass production from honest-to-god fabrication machines — but none of them had tried to kidnap me or whatever. It was almost disappointing.

We humans, tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of us, were gathered into an area the size of a large park, complete with what passed for trees and bushes. Above us was a large dome that at first had been lit up a light blue, with patches of white which could have passed for clouds. A golden disk traversed the sky in a simulacrum of a sun, and now it was setting.

The space raptors had been passing out round mattresses. I snagged one, settling down on it for want of something better to do. Breathing deeply, trying to get the crazy out of my head, I closed my eyes and willed sleep to come. It was a long time before it did.

The sound of breaking glass, heavy explosions that shook me to the core, and thunderous clouds of burning death filled my eyes and ears, echoing through my mind as a dark mass made of teeth and fury lunged for me… suddenly there was screaming. It was dark and I flailed helplessly for a good long moment before I realised the screaming was coming from me.

“Shh, shh, you’re okay, you’re okay…”

I blinked. It was too dark to see, but I realized I was now awake, and it had all, mostly, been a nightmare. Around me were countless humans, some of them snoring, or at least breathing. I calmed myself as the arms of some total stranger held me tightly.

“Thank, uh, thank you,” I whispered, hoarsely. “I… I don’t know what came over me.”

“This. All of this came over you. You’re not the first, you know, it’s quite common. I’ve had basic training, though nothing really… I’m Henry. Squeeze the foot of your pillow, you’ve got it, right?”

“The foot?” It took me a few tries, but eventually my pillow lit up with a soft glow. “You’re a girl! I mean… a woman. Oh god, I’m hopeless. Let’s start again. Hi, I’m Dean.” I shook the hands of an older woman, lines on her face. She smiled, showing creases. It made me feel safer, somehow. Her eyes were a dark brown, and her hair seemed black, but the faint, orange light washed all the colours out, so what did I know.

“Henry, short for Henrietta. I think my parents wanted a boy. You okay now?”

“Yeah, thanks, I guess I am.”

“Good. Pleased to meet you. If you need anything, then just ask. I’m… bed neighbours, or whatever. And if we don’t see each other again, good luck?”

“Thanks, Henry.”

I put my head back down on the pillow — a night light, of all things. Were these made for children? — and closed my eyes. Sometime between one breath and the next, I slept. When I opened my eyes again, there was something of a bustle going on. The ‘sun’ had risen, and whatever lit the park had made everything visible again. If my phone hadn’t been broken, or out of battery, I might have known what the time was. Not that it really mattered. The space raptors were back — they’d made themselves scarce during ‘night’ — and were busy handing out what appeared to be ‘bento’ boxes, of all things. I took one, trying to avoid taking another three whilst settling for two, and wandered around, eating my strange breakfast, trying to find Henry, not that I was even sure I knew what she looked like. I was half convinced I’d dreamt her up. Instead I found my way to the edge of the ‘park’ where there were sets of doors. Three of them were lit up, with a fourth darkened. Above them were symbols, of a sort.

I was just about to reach for one of them when I heard a cheerful “Hey Dean!” from behind me. I spun.

“Bob? What the hell?”

“Yeah, weird, eh? Thousands of people here and I find you again. What’s this then?” Bob, too, had wandered away from the generally aimlessly wandering crowd, and somehow found me. He was a very welcome face, for all that I’d only really known him a few days. I’d seen him around, of course, I bought enough lottery tickets over the years, but didn’t really know him, know him. That made me feel kind of guilty, to be honest.

“Doors,” I said, blithely.

“Nothing gets past you, does it?”

“Hah, funny. You’re a funny guy, Bob.”

“I mean, what are they doing here?”

“You… go through them?” Now that I thought about it, I could see sets of doors all the way down the walls of the park, all identical. Every so often, people would poke their nose through them. Hmm. I poked the first door. It swung open slightly, then closed again. “Seems safe enough.”

Bob looked skeptical. “Go on then.”

I drew myself up straight. “Fine. I will.”

Pushing open the first door again, I stepped through.

“”

“...Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.”

I went back out the door, breathing heavily. “Ahh… bad door,” I said to the waiting Bob. “I, er, yeah. Not going through that one.”

“Pfft, what’s wrong with it?”

“Alright then, you try the other one.”

I watched, arms crossed, as Bob gingerly opened his door, the third one. It didn’t take long before he came back, white as a sheet.

“Bad door?” I asked. He nodded, very quickly, swallowing.

“Very, very bad door. Giant werewolf. You?”

“Giant snake creature. Do you think they’re going to… come through and eat everyone?”

Bob blinked, thoughtfully. “You, er, you know what? Why haven’t they?”

“Why haven’t they what?”

“Come through and eaten everyone?”

“Huh.” I thought for a moment, blinking. “Wait, let me try the third door.”

I pushed open the second door, and as I thought it had a space-raptor in it. “Hi, uh, yeah, be with you in a moment.” I ducked out again. “Hey Bob?”

“Yeah?”

“I, uh, you know how there are aliens, right?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s more of them. I-I-I mean there’s like… three of them? Snake guys, werewolves, and space raptors. And… and whatever’s behind the fourth door?” I poked my head through it. The room beyond was brightly lit, but empty. “There’s nothing behind this door. Just the three, then.”

“You’re telling me that there are three alien species here?”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh.” Bob thought for a moment. “Okay, right. I’m going to sort things out.” He strode through the ‘werewolf door’ as I now called it.

“What do you mean, you’re going to sort it out?” I strode after him. Or tried to. When I pushed on the door this time, it wouldn’t open. From inside, I suddenly heard a lot of really loud growling and something that may or may not have been Bob regretting his life choices.

“It is a far, far better thing for you to be eaten by giant space werewolves than me, my dear friend,” I lamented, for around five seconds, hand over heart, before shrugging and strolling away. “Greatest, most noble sacrifice, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever. Space raptors it is, then, because I don’t think I’m ready for giant snake creatures.”

I opened the second door.

Chr'ter squirmed in her support web. Her tracker was going off that her little-needs-protecting was nearing an Adoption Station — correction, Placement Bureau — and she wasn’t there to meet her!

“|Come on! Come on...!|” She tongued the mic, requesting a channel. “|Zephyr Nexus! Requesting priority access to landing bay!”

“|Hey Chr'ter, Chrk'chrk here again! Saw it was you, wanted to sa—|”

“|Please! You’ve gotta help me!|” Chr'ter interrupted, trying hard to keep her breathing in check.

There was silence from the other end of the channel for a few moments. “|Are you… are you stating you have a medical emergency?|”

“|Umm, m-my little-needs-protecting is, is…|”

“|No, no, I don’t think I heard you. Are you hearing me? Are you stating you have a medical emergency that would require you to dock faster?|”

Chr'ter blinked, a dim bulb burning brighter. “|Uh, y-yes, I-I-I th-think I might be. I don’t know anything about little-needs-protectings and, uh, I th-think they m-might s-sick, uh…|”

Chrk'chrk now sounded much brighter at the other end. “|Oh that’s terrible! Giving you a priority on approach Gleaming, do let us know as soon as possible if your emergency status has been cancelled, alright? Same bay as before, keeping your nest warm for you. Speaking of, what’re you… what’re you doing later?|”

“|Well, uh, I m-might be a bit busy, b-but, uh, when do you get off shift? There… there might be something I need help with.|” Chr'ter called up her organizer, letting it set up a liaison in the near future — she hoped she wouldn’t regret this, but really, when somebody tries their hardest to make sure you don’t lose your little-needs-protecting, when almost the entire galaxy wants one and can’t get one? Well, you make allowances — whilst she slipped into her priority route.

As her ship powered down — and she sent the belated emergency status cancellation — her notifications app was informing her that her little-needs-protecting was in the zone. No Karnakian ever had cleared landing crosscheck so swiftly, and the pilot was one of the first out the door, even ahead of the passengers.

“|Burnt feathers! I have to… please! Let me through!|” She picked up her petticoats — figuratively speaking, her armor didn’t have petticoats, even if she’d known what they were — and ran for it through the converted cargo bay, feathers fluffing up uncomfortably under the hide-tight shielding as she weaved her way as quickly as possible through the crowds of milling sapients of several species.

There were a number of angry shouts as she barrelled past Karnakians that were just too slow to get out of the way, stumbled as she stepped on a Jornissian’s tail — “|Sorry! Sorry! I’m sorry! Gotta rush! Can’t stop!|” — and leaped to slide through what looked like an entire pack of Dorarizin as she entered the Big Shop of Little-Needs-Protectings. This made her stop short where nothing else did. Now she was out of the Senate areas and into the zones set aside for the rescue effort, hurrying was out of the question. These creatures were so small, the idea that she could practically pulverize them by stomping through their midst almost gave her a panic attack, but she just… she had to make it!

“|Please! Please! No! Please! Excuse… oops! Sorry! Gosh!|”

Still, she moved as quickly as possible, all the while her locator was beeping faster, faster, faster… finally she was at the right door! She pushed it open…

She… she pushed it open…

No!

“|Oh no! Please! Please let me in! Please!|”

The door was stuck fast, every request for it to unlock was denied — Placement In Progress — and her stomach turned somersaults before plunging out the bottom of the station into space. She was too late…

Tears streaming down her muzzle, she leaned her head against the door, sobbing as she head-butted it repeatedly… and promptly fell in as the door opened.

“[Greet greet no care [MONIKER UNAVAILABLE] local interruption?]”

Chr'ter lay there, on the floor, as a miracle happened around her. She was inside. And so was her little-needs-protecting. And she, at least she thought it was a she, recognized her.

“|Hello, uh, I was under the impression this would be a private meeting?|” The other karnakian was fluffed out, indignant, though she tried her best to hide it. She was a sleeker, lowlands karnakian, practically bald by comparison, her hide a mottled green and brown, her feathers muted and infrequent. Her eyes, however, were a piercing gold. “|My name is Zri’Chuff, and I’m glad to see you,|” she said to the little-needs-protecting, pointedly ignoring Chr'ter.

“|I’m sorry, Zri’Chuff, I’m Chr'ter and this is my, uh, little-needs-protecting…|”

“|I don’t see your name on him!|”

“|B-but I d-do have, I mean she has, an identification disk on him, I rescued her from the planet. See? Can you show her, Softy?|” Chr'ter tried to mime showing the other Karnakian something. Softy, as she called her, nodded. The little-needs-protecting babbled something in that adorable squeaking they called language — so adorable when they tried to speak — and it was rapidly, if badly, translated.

“[Affirmation. Query Nesting?]”

Chr'ter almost choked on her tail. “|Oh! Uh, no, no, I’ve never seen this person in my life! Look, I’m sorry, Softy, please come to me!|” Chr'ter crooned.

“|Wait! No!|” Zri’chuff interrupted, fluffing up and flicking her tail angrily. “|That’s… come to me! He wants to come to me!|”

“[Sexual confusion gender negative angry make,]” Softy tried to say, causing both of Chr'ter and Zri’chuff to start babbling over each other. Eventually the little-needs-protecting held up her hands — at least Chr'ter thought it was a ‘her’, it was hard to tell — and tried to smooth things over.

“|Wait, wait! Honestly, Softy, do you still have your tag? Like this one?|” Chr'ter fumbled around in her pockets and took out a tag, setting it to ‘locator’ mode. Understanding blossomed on the little-needs-protecting’s features.

“[Have!]”

Zri’chuff slumped as the little-needs-protecting took out a tag. One given to him by Chr'ter, obviously, as it lit up and started vibrating. “|I guess that’s it then. I’m… I’m sorry. First Mother forgive me, I’ll just… I’ll go. I won’t darken your nest with my presence, I’ll—|” She started babbling apologies, sniffling and crying, not noticing as the little-needs-protecting sidled up to her. It was almost a reflex to pull the tiny creature to her, hugging him. It was only his cute, breathless squeaks of anguish that made her relinquish her too-strong hold on him.

“|Oh! I’m sorry! I was just… I waited! In line! And-and I did everything they asked and—|”

Softy, as he was obviously being called, patted her arms gently. “[Softy fetch more! Give good!]” ...and he did. Zri’Chuff watched in amazement as the little-needs-protecting went and found, for her, her very own little-needs-protecting. And it was like the suns coming out from behind the moons of her homeworld. From that point on, Zri’chuff only had eyes for her brown-eyed, golden head-furred little-needs-protecting, barely noticing when the other two left the room.

Chr'ter near vibrated with happiness. She had to try very hard not to pick up and squeeze the little-needs-protecting in front of her. Instead she patted Softy on the head. Little-needs-protectings were the best of all possible things.

“[You want Softy come home live good?]” Softy asked tentatively, as they cleared most of the crowds. The little-needs-protecting was following along, so Chr'ter knew it was mostly a rhetorical question at this point. It was a question of whether Softy was wanted or not.

“|I do, Softy. I want you to come with me very much. You and your… wait, where’s your mate? Your… uh… are you a girl? Or a boy? Your clutch-mate, anyhow?|” Chr'ter’s spleen ached, thinking she’d split up a family.

Softy turned and cheep-cheep’d at her in smollish. “[Query no mate [male] satisfaction greeting?]”

Chr'ter wasn’t sure which was the more embarrassed, but she was sure she was the only one dismayed. Not only was Softy not a female, but there would be no little chirping little-needs-protectings from him, just the one… Chr'ter stopped a moment, tail twitching as she thought about it. Just the one, lone, little-needs-protecting. All alone. With nobody else to depend on but her. Oh how awful. She would have to be his sole companion, confidante and source of companionship… if you could harness vibrational energy, Chr'ter would’ve lit up the grid, if Karnakians had a grid. Oh, yes, she had made the right choice.

She’d put in the call to the fabbers as she’d hurried out the ship to head for the placement complex, and it had been ready for delivery for the last few minutes. A drone had signalled to her implants that it was in a holding pattern above her head, and was rapidly reaching the point at which it would return to service a different karnakian, one with more time on his or her tail when it came to delivering the post. She trilled to Softy, telling him to stop. He turned to look at her with confusion as she received the package.

“[Query box contents?]”

“|It’s… it’s for you! Do you like it?|” Chr'ter swiftly opened up the box to reveal what was inside. Lifting it out, she held it up for Softy to see. The translation-slash-identification-slash-security device, his collar, was a cheery red, soft and fluffy on the inside so that it wouldn’t chafe, with a beautiful tag that had his name on it… but for some reason, the little-needs-protecting wasn’t that impressed.

“[Negative superlative! Invisible post mortem attire!]”

“|But… wait… come here! No! Stop that! Bad Softy! You have to wear this!|” Chr'ter chased after the little thing, as carefully as possible, as he scampered away on his two wobbly legs and unstable spine. It was so cute! Frustrating, yet cute.

“[Superlative everything not exist! Knowledge request?]”

“|Look, you have to wear it, so you can be kept safe! It’ll help you get home, it’ll let everyone know who’s your mommy, and it’ll let you be able to speak, and let them speak to you! Everywhere!|”

“[Affirmative negation. Smaller? Wrist? Ankle?]”

“|No! It won’t… we don’t have… put it… ON! There!|”

“[Threat removing feathers slumber!]”

“|I love you too. Come on, you’ll get used to it. Stop it… stop… stop picking at it!|”

Grumbling, Softy was led away to an uncertain future, into an artificial sunset. Or at least to a cafeteria so Chr'ter could show off her little-needs-protecting to Chrk'chrk. She could hardly wait to see his face!

Everything was going to be amazing. If she could just stop her little-needs-protecting from taking his collar off.

“|No! Put it… put it back on!|”

“[Incessant freedom removal!]”

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